Posts tagged with American Culinary History in Blog Beyond the Reading Room

Showing 21 - 30 of 34 items
The words “Choice Recipes” with an ornate red capital R
  • Jacqueline L Jacobson
This month’s recipe is a lemon cake from Culinary gems : a collection of choice recipes gathered with care from the treasures of culinary experts, published in Westfield, Massachusetts in 1884.
Lemon was an extremely common flavor for desserts and pastries in the 19th century -- almost the default neutral flavor, the way vanilla is now. Although vanilla was known in Europe as a flavoring by the 16th century (there’s an article on it in Diderot’s Encyclopédie of 1765) and a commercial extract was available in the US from at least 1847, it overtook lemon in cakes and pies only slowly
Liz welcoming visitors to Special Collections Reading Room
  • Alix Brittany Wolfe Norton
What kind of research can you do in Special Collections? Many people may think that using the materials here is only for “serious” scholars who are conducting historical research into specific topics, but the space is open to everyone (and anyone - that means you!) who wants to get their hands on primary sources. Browse some featured items here and ponder what kinds of research questions one could come up with...
The cover of an issue of the Boston Cooking School Magazine: the stylized figure of a woman in a red gown cooing over  achafing dish
  • Jacqueline L Jacobson
American Culinary History materials are full of representations of women and femininity These images are occasionally realistic, often absolute fantasy, and and sometimes somewhere in between.
Verstille's Southern Cookery book cover
  • Rashelle M Nagar
Curator JJ Jacobson's guest lecture in undergraduate seminar Race and Culture in the American South (History 262/AmCult 263) introduces students to Special Collection materials at U-M while also demonstrating how to use cookbooks as primary sources.
Book Cover with an image of Uncle Sam weighing a man and a woman in an old-fashioned scale.
  • Jacqueline L Jacobson
Every year, March the 14th, 3/14 or 3.14, is Pi Day. Once century, however, the date is 3/14/15, making it an extra special Pi Day. Tomorrow is such a day. In celebration, we present a Suffragist pie recipe from a 1915 suffrage charity cook book.
African American woman holding a frying pan
  • Jacqueline L Jacobson
One thread that runs through Southern cookbooks is the figure of the African American in the kitchen.
Mother and child with a loaf of bread, in an style that draws both from Art Deco and Art Nouveau
  • Jacqueline L Jacobson
American Culinary History materials are full of representations of children and childhood: sometimes realistic, sometimes wholly fantastical, with adults present or without them.
Three women sit on a carpet around a low table sharing Turkish coffee and pastries, The women form a circle, which is visually mirrored by the Chocolate Walnut Jell-O dessert below them
  • Jacqueline L Jacobson
Talk and reception to celebrate the upcoming online exhibit "Jell-O: America’s Most Famous Dessert At Home Everywhere." Dr. Nicole Tarulevicz of the School of Humanities at the University of Tasmania speaks at 5:00 p.m. Using materials drawn from the culinary ephemera holdings of the Janice Bluestein Longone Culinary Archive at U-M Library, the exhibit explores how the Jell-O company’s early 20th century advertising used depictions of the exotic to sell the product to Americans.
Image of Eve picking an apple from a Jell-O advertisement
  • Jacqueline L Jacobson
Early 20th century advertising materials for Jell-O contain striking representations of age, race, class, gender, nationality, regionality, and other vectors of identity; whether self-defined or other-imposed. In January, we’ll unveil a digital exhibit, guest curated by Dr. Nicole Tarulevicz, on depictions of the exotic in early 20th century Jell-O advertising. There will be an exhibit opening and reception, with a talk by Dr. Tarulevicz, January 12th, 4:30-6pm, in the Hatcher Gallery
Picture of a double-crusted mock cherry pie
  • Jacqueline L Jacobson
Americans love pie any time of year, but in November pie is particularly in the spotlight. Apple, mince, pumpkin… every family seems to have its own traditional pie repertoire for Thanksgiving. But since we're heading into cranberry season anyway, here’s something a little different for your festive board: Mock Cherry Pie, made with cranberries and raisins -- a common recipe in our late 19th and early 20th century cookbooks.